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I am a life long crafter. As kid I was "artsy" as an adult
I guess I still am. Fundamentally I like to create things
and started this blog not only as a way to share ideas
and connect with other crafters, but as a way to make
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Thursday, January 24, 2013

Valentine's Paper Tape Candy (Candy Buttons)

Reminder-My cake pop kit GIVEAWAY is open until Friday January 25th. If you haven't entered yet, hop on over and leave a comment!

Paper Tape Candy, Candy Buttons, or Candy Dots- whatever you call them I love em'. But I'll tell you a little secret, it's not for the taste (which is good, just not the reason I love them so much). It's because of the colors. The rows and rows of colors all lined up just look too pretty to resist!

So when I learned that making it was nothing more than dots of royal icing, I was excited to try it for myself. But that got me thinking- if you're going to make it at home, you don't have to just make dots. Why not make something really custom that you couldn't get in any store?

Like say... hearts for Valentine's Day... in an ombré color scheme.

Or X's and O's and Love U's

All packaged up, these make fabulous Valentine's Day treats or party favors. And how adorable would something like this be as a wedding favor! You could even make sheets with the couple's initials!

How to make Valentine's Paper Tape Candy: I've also made my bag tags and pattern grid available as a FREE download! You'll find them at the bottom of this post.

Materials:

Royal Icing, tinted to whatever shades you like.

Piping Bags

Piping Tips and Couplings: Number 2 Round (for Hearts), Number 1 Round (for Letters). Ideally one tip for each color (but you can wash them between colors if you have to).

Bowl and Spoon for each color icing

Wax Paper

Pattern Grid (download below)

Card Stock

Treat Bags- 4 in X 9.5 in

Bag Tags (download below)

Stapler

Painter's Tape

Start by making a batch of royal icing, tint to whatever colors you like. For my icing I used the recipe that came in a can of meringue powder and halved it- because trust me, a little bit of icing goes a long way when you're making paper tape candy! I also added vanilla flavoring.

Download (at the bottom of the post) and print the grid and tags. Or if you like- make your own.

Cut and fold the tags so they're ready to go.

Cut pieces of wax paper and a pieces of card stock into 3 inch by 8 inch strips. Cut one for each sheet of candy you plan to make.

Tape the wax paper over each grid using painter's tape. Painter's tape is the best thing I found that will stick to both the wax paper and printer paper but will also peel off easily. I found that laying the wax paper curl side down was best... I'll explain why in a just a second.

Note on the grid: The one pictured is my handmade one. The one available for download is a neater version. There are two grids on each 8.5 x 11 inch sheet.

Most of the ways I've seen for making homemade paper tape candy use regular printer paper to hold the candy dots. However I'm a firm believer in using only food-grade items on anything that comes in direct contact with food. Printer paper has chemicals in it- and while they probably won't make you sick or kill you- it's still not intended (or approved) for food. The icing comes off the wax paper easier than it would regular paper, but I didn't have any problems with my candy falling off. I tested both sides of the wax paper and found that the candy stuck to the back just a little bit better than the front- which is why I recommend laying it curl side down. Oh and by the way, don't use parchment paper, the icing will just fall right off!

Now it's time to pipe. I did one color at a time so I didn't have to switch piping bags constantly. And if you don't have enough piping tips for all your colors this approach is helpful because you can wash the tip after each color and use it on the next.

For the hearts I piped "V" shapes using a round number two tip. As the icing spreads the "V's" fill in to make a heart shape. Having the grid behind the wax paper helped me to get the spacing even. Piping the "V"s turned out not to be any harder that piping little dots, in fact it might have been easier!

For the letters I used a number one round tip. The smaller tip allowed the icing to spread without making the letters too chunky looking. I used my heart grid for this too and the spacing worked out fine.

Tip: If you make a mistake you can wipe the icing right off the wax paper. That's one of the nice things about using wax paper instead of printer paper!

Once the icing is dry the sheets can be packaged. Place a piece of the cut card stock behind the sheet of candy. The card stock helps the wax paper not bend too much, which could result in candy falling off.

Slide both the card stock and the candy sheet into a treat bag. Sandwich the top of the bag between the front and back of the tag, and staple on each side to secure it in place.

Downloads: I've made my grid and both tag designs available as FREE downloads. These are for personal use only. Please respect the time it took me to make these by not using them for any commercial purposes.

Hi Kathy-joe, Royal icing is pretty easy to make. It's basically powdered sugar (icing sugar I think it's called in Europe), a little water, and either pasteurized egg whites or meringue powder. The only thing to watch out for is here in he US powdered sugar had cornstarch added and in Europe I don't think that's the case. I'm not sure if that makes a difference when it comes to making the icing or not.

How sweet! These are better than 'regular' candy buttons b/c the paper won't stick to the back when you try to peel them off! Not to mention that these are waaaay cuter. So sweet of you to include all those printables, great tutorial to boot. :)